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A Canadian Paralympic skier has overcome
vision correction problems and won gold in the 20-kilometre cross-country ski race for the visually impaired this week, despite having just ten per cent of his sight intact.
Brian McKeever has been battling for eight years to make his Olympic dream come true.
He was set to become the first person to compete in both the Winter Olympics and the Winter Paralympics after qualifying earlier this year.
However, Canadian coaches decided to pull him out of the Winter Olympic's 50-kilometre race.
Not competing in the Winter Olympics was a major blow to the skier, but he hopes this victory will help him move on.
"I keep saying it hurts as much as the day I was told I was going to lose my eyesight," McKeever told reporters ahead of the Winter Paralympics.
"That's how big it was for me. It was huge, crushing. But I got over the eyes. I will get over this," he added.
McKeever suffers from a rare, genetic condition which has reduced his vision by 90 per cent and does not respond to standard
vision correction.
Stargaard's disease causes macular degeneration in the young, with symptoms - including wavy vision, blind spots, blurriness, impaired colour vision, and difficulty adapting to dim lighting - usually presenting themselves in patients before the age of 20.
Macular degeneration usually affects older people and can be spotted using a simple eye test - the Amsler Grid Test.
Some of the early symptoms of macular degeneration are in many ways similar to those presented by other eye conditions - such as myopia.
Myopia can be treated with various
vision correction techniques, including a number of alternatives to laser eye surgery.
One such cure for myopia is the use of i-GO's Ortho K corrective lenses, which reshape a person's eye while they sleep dealing with short sightedness without the need for them to wear contact lenses or glasses during the day.
Sports Vision: Will i-GO over night contact lenses improve your sports performance?
Written by Louise Cole
